Peaceful Days
by PetiteEnigma
Summary: Sequel to Sleepless Nights. Sometimes it really is as simple as seeing family again. They hope. Zutara. Sukka. Second gen/kids. Please review!
1. Chapter 1: Play

_**Disclaimer: I don't own AtLA. That's all.**_

_Sequel to Sleepless Nights_

Five years passed. Five years to raise their daughter away from the public eye. Five years to perfect a plan that had been so hastily made at first in the back room of an apartment in Ba Sing Se. Seven, almost eight, years ago the War of a Hundred Years ended. Prisoners of war and soldiers alike returned home. Others didn't. Banishments were revoked, in hopes of drawing out a single person who hadn't been seen in fourteen years.

"Ata, look! Taku!" Kyrsa bounded into the office, a Fire Lily held as delicately as a five year old can manage in one outstretched hand, "Aga told me to give this to you so you'd know the fire lilies are blooming." She beamed.

Zuko set down the papers he had been reading on the ornate desk. Included were various treaties between the Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom. Details on the progress made in rebuilding the Northern and Southern Water Tribes. Some resettlement plans for the Fire Nation colonies.

"Tell her 'thank you' for me," he tossed her in the air and caught her. Repeated the action a few more times; sent her on her way.

She giggled, skipped away down the hall. The words, "I will, Ata!" floated back to him.

A couple hours later Katara leaned against the doorframe, caught sight of the slightly crushed flower on the desk, "She adores you."

"How are the plans coming along?" He didn't look up.

"Within the month they'll be off paper and in action." It only took the better part of four years to perfect everything.

"There," he finished reading the last line of a letter from Uncle about how the Dai Li continued to interfere with the mail system of Ba Sing Se. Old habits die slowly it seemed. "Where is she?"

"In her room, taking a nap." Katara wasted no time, "She needs to meet the rest of her family. My side, I mean. Really know them. I haven't even met my nephews and niece."

"I can't just leave, you know that."

"We wouldn't be gone long; it's only a couple weeks at the South Pole."

"Who's going to watch over the Fire Nation while I'm gone? I get anonymous death threats every day. At least four have been from people who work for me within the past three months"

"Well, what are they supposed to do? Chief Sokka can't leave the Southern Water Tribe and Fire Lord Zuko can't leave the Fire Nation Capital."

"You'll have to manage without us."

"I traveled all around the world, but I am not going to let our family be apart. Ever. She'll miss you. _I'll _miss you!"

"Katara, it's a couple weeks. You said so yourself."

"A couple weeks turns into a month, or a couple months and before you know it she hasn't seen her dad in two years because of some stupid little trip! I want our daughter to grow up with both of her parents around. Not off in some other part of the world. I want her to have what we never got."

"I'll have to contact Uncle, ask him to stand in for me as long as we need," Iroh was the only person left Zuko trusted.

Three days later Kyrsa had her first look at a decommissioned navy ship. The same one her father was banished on in an impossible search. She knew nothing about the war. Of Fire Nation soldiers raiding villages. Of families ripped apart in an instant. But nothing can be hidden forever from the curious.

* * *

A/N: Here's the sequel. The chapters will vary in length. Ata and Aga mean father and mother respectively in Yup'ik. Taku is look in Inuit. Please review!


	2. Chapter 2: Probably

"What are you eating, sweetie?" Katara raised an eyebrow at her daughter systematically chewing something, then spitting it back out.

"Sugar cane," Kyrsa stated with a young child's no-nonsense and went back to her nibbling.

"Where did you get sugar cane?" She knelt down.

"Egasta." No one was sure why she insisted on using the Old Language for some words. The ship's cook didn't mind her calling him such. The whole crew was enraptured by the bold little girl. She reminded them of what they had left to fight in the war. What they hoped to have.

The crew wasn't strictly Fire Nation any longer. As part of one of the treaties with the Earth Kingdom they regularly exchanged groups with military careers. So far they succeeded in keeping tensions to a minimum. The Dai Li tried to stir up trouble every now and then, but the fringe group was losing power with every unwise move they made. There was no trust whatsoever, but that was to be expected. Seven years paled in comparison to one hundred years.

"Aga, is this where you grew up?" The cold was kept at bay by traditional Water Tribe clothes. She hung her arms over the railing.

"Yes, Kai," Katara studied the ice floes drifting past.

Kyrsa fiddled with the necklace given to her a few nights before, "What happened to Ma'rr Kya?"

"I'll tell you when you're older." _Not now. _

"I want to know _now_, Aga. If you don't tell me I'll ask Ata." She had her father's determination.

"She was killed by Fire Nation soldiers when I was seven," after all these years tears slipped through.

"Why, Aga?"

"It was a long time ago. There was a war going on."

"But Ata is Fire Nation, right?"

"And you are too, Kyrsa."

"What about you?"

"I'm Water Tribe by birth and Fire Nation by marriage."

"I'm fire and water," she grinned, "it makes me think of helping Ataat make tea."

"Boiling water and mixing herbs to make something that warms one from the inside out, yes, Kyrsa, you're Uncle's tea for our spirits," she thought silently to herself.

"We'll be docking in half an hour," Zuko set his hand on Katara's shoulder.

"Oh good, they fit," she commented on his water tribe-style outfit, fixing his hood in a similar manner to how she would deal with their daughter's.

Later That Day

"Katara? Is that you?"

"Sokka!"

The siblings embraced, then stepped back to look at one another.

"Look at you! Chief Sokka." She marveled at how much her brother had changed in the three years since they'd seen each other.

"And Fire Lady Katara."

"Don't forget Princess of the Southern Water Tribe."

"How could I?" He turned to Zuko and they exchanged the formal greetings of both the water tribe and fire nation. It only seemed natural to follow up with a hug.

"Ata…is he my Angar?"

Zuko nodded.

She walked up to Sokka, and went through the exact same motions she saw her father make with an expression too serious for one so young.

"I'm Kyrsa, Princess of the Fire Nation _and _Princess of the Southern Water Tribe." She had her mother's smugness, and her father's pride of lineage, "But you can call me Kai like Aga and Ata."

"Where's Suki?" Katara noticed her friend wasn't around.

"She alternates between living here and on Kyoshi Island for about two months at a time. She'll be back in two or three weeks."

"What about your children?"

"They stay here in the village. Sometimes I'm not sure if they know Suki is their mother so many women of the tribe have raised them."

"Amak! Amak amak amak amak amak amak!" A trio of toddlers attacked Sokka's legs.

"This is Sakari," he indicated a girl, then "this is Siku," a hand on a boy's head, "and this is Suka," hand on the other boy.

"You don't think you went a little overboard with everyone having an 'S' name?"

"What's your point?"

"Nothing."

Kyrsa studied the four and a half year old twin boys and three year old girl, announced to them, "I'm your ilurer, Kyrsa."

The cousins gave her queer looks then realized what the words meant and tackled her. They tumbled along in the snow. Soon they were racing towards the village to one house in particular. The mob went crashing through a curtained door. Hakoda looked at the giggling heap at his feet.

He asked, "Who's this?" of the new little girl.

"She's Kyrsa, Ap'arr," Sakari explained.

"Hello," she held out her arm in greeting.

It took a moment for him to realize what she wanted.

"Gran-Gran!" No matter how many generations she lived to see, Kanna was referred to as Gran-Gran by the entire village. She earned it.

"Ama'urr!" Pakku on the other hand only allowed the three (now four) great-grandchildren to call him anything other than Pakku, and occasionally Master or Sifu when he taught waterbending.

The families were introduced first, then the village, which had swelled in population. The rag tag bunch of boy warriors was now a gaggle of fully fledged teenagers. Others had left to see what lie beyond this constantly white world they had known for so long. With the war over vacations and sight-seeing became much more common. They sat down to a modest meal. Zuko, unlike Aang, rather enjoyed the stewed sea prunes.

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A/N: I had a lot of fun writing this chapter. I hope Kyrsa is as amusing to read as it is for me to write her.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone in the US. I'll be gone from early tomorrow morning (Friday) to late afternoon Sunday for a mariner competition. I'll be running around a Naval Base as a boatswain. Oh yeah!

Translations:  
Egasta - Cook  
Ata - Father  
Aga - Mother  
Ma'rr - Grandma  
Ataat - (Great) Uncle  
Angar - Uncle  
Amak - Father wolf  
Sakari - Sweet  
Siku - Ice  
Suka - Fast  
Ilurer - cousin  
Ap'arr - Grandpa  
Ama'urr - Great Grandpa

Please review! I would love to come back and have a lot of reviews on this. It makes me feel loved. Or fave. Or Alert. Just knowing people follow this makes me happy.


	3. Chapter 3: Envy

Katara swayed with eyes closed, not sure if she was moving the water or it moved her. There were too many questions—about love, about Zuko, about Kyrsa, about Hahn, about the Fire Nation, about Aang. The comments on those topics weren't always flattering. A few people considered her traitor to her tribe. No one in her family at least, but it was still disheartening. She opened her eyes and settled them on the slow moving ice.

As she stepped into the camp she heard young voices, some familiar, some not. Her daughter stood in front of them all, teaching a silly little song she and Sokka used to sing a long time ago. She did not remember teaching it to her.

"No, you put your hands like this, see? Like something biting," Kyrsa put her fingers and thumbs together on each hand.

"We get it, Kai…" Sakari intoned to her slightly older cousin.

"Forty days on an iceberg," they held up four fingers, "over the ocean wide," crossed their arms and brought them out to the sides, like they were covering a huge expanse.

"Nothing to wear but jammies," they put their hands on their shoulders then their knees.

"Nothing to do but slide," they moved their arms diagonally across their bodies, mimicking the action and feeling of penguin sledding.

"The air was cold and frosty," they rubbed their arms.

"The frost began to bite," they made the little biting beaks Kyrsa had just shown them.

"I had to hug a polar bear to keep me warm at night," they each bear hugged the person standing next to them, "Oh!"

This was repeated several more times, and each time a line was replaced by humming. The actions stayed the same. Until at the very end they all hummed through it all and yelled out "Oh!" so loud it probably made ice fall into the ocean.

Siku pulled Suka down into the snow. The two wrestled around as little boys do. They rolled over one another nearly all the way back to the center of the village where they knocked into ice, not snow. Suka shoved his brother into it as hard as he could. It split his lip. Siku tried to bite his brother. It was no longer an innocent little game.

"Siku! Suka! Arca! Arca kwanirpag!" Kyrsa stamped her foot.

"Ang'u malzrig." Sakari made a motion to pull them apart, but nearly got a bloody nose from a flying boot.

"Aga! Ata! Angar!" she wasn't sure if she should leave them there. They could really hurt each other. More than they already had.

Zuko sprinted over, fearing the worst, and screeched to a halt. He picked up both boys by the back of their parkas like kittens and held them off the ground.

"What is going on here?" He demanded.

"He started it!" Suka accused.

"Nu-uh!" Siku countered.

"Ya-huh!"

"Nu-uh!"

"Ya-huh!"

"Nu-uh."

"Ya-huh."

"Nu-uh."

"Ya-huh."

"Nu-uh."

Ya-h—"

"I don't care who started it! What happened?" Zuko dropped them onto the snow ungracefully.

"They were fighting, Ata," Kyrsa answered for them.

"We were just playing at first, but he shoved me into the ice," Siku folded his arms and stuck out his lip.

"Stick that bottom lip of yours out any farther and I'll step on it…" Zuko warned. The little boy couldn't decide between breaking out into a grin and keeping his pout to test the threat.

"You shoved me into the snow first." Suka countered with his own story.

"We'll discuss this later with your father. Go see your Aunt Katara about those wounds," he watched as they trudged to the healing hut where she would most likely be found, "Sakari, go with your brothers to make sure they don't get into any more trouble." She skipped up to them and took a hand in each of hers.

"Is that why Ozai and Azula aren't allowed to be in the palace?" Kyrsa rubbed the toe of one boot against the other's heel.

He stopped himself from asking how she knew about his father and psychotic sister, "Yes, families shouldn't fight. It isn't good."

"I'm glad you and Aga don't fight," she leans against his legs, makes a confession, "At night sometimes I hear other families. The Agas blame the Atas for things, the Atas say it isn't their fault, they yell. A lot."

"I never noticed." He grew up used to hearing Ozai bark orders at servants at all hours.

"It scares me, Ata." She stopped fidgeting.

He sat on the frigid frozen ground and scooped her into his lap, "I will never yell at you or your mother."

"Or any brothers and sisters I have?" Kyrsa asked very seriously.

"Or any brothers and sisters you have." He nodded.

"Promise?" Just to make sure.

"I promise."

"Cross your heart."

"What?"

"Cross it!"

He made an 'x' over his heart like she asked. Then quickly stood up and tossed her up onto his shoulders. She shrieked with laughter. Her new view of the endless white expanse around them silenced her.

"I'm big, Ata!" She held her arms out to the sky to show him, "Look!"

He craned his neck back slightly to see, gasped at how big she was now.

"Hold on," it was an order, not a request.

She hugged his head tightly; fingers linked on his forehead, and hooked her feet in front of his chest. He held onto her ankles for dear life. And ran. Their hair rushed back in the chilly air. He stopped, taking a few deep breaths in front of the healing hut. Kyrsa reluctantly let herself be put down again.

"Is Aga fixing them?"

"Yes."

* * *

A/N: I learned that song in Girl Scouts. I think it's very appropriate for the Southern Water Tribe. The "Ya-huh!" "Nu-uh!" part was shamelessly stolen from 'The Emperor's New Groove.' The 'cross your heart' thing is from 'Up' and my own childhood. I have way too much material to use for little kids. I hope you all enjoyed this. Please review, alert, fave, or whatever. It's all good.

Translations:  
Arca! - Stop it!  
Kwanirpag - right now  
Ang'u - Stop  
Malzrig - twins


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